The Ministry of Interior confirmed that the victims were killed most recently in Gaza City's Karama and Sheikh Radwan neighbourhoods, where 13 houses also collapsed, according to Al Jazeera, as the storm raged throughout the strip.
Civil defence teams stated that they were responding to hundreds of distress calls from various areas in the strip.
Medical sources at Al-Shifa Hospital reported the deaths of Hadeel Hamdan, 9, and infant Taim al-Khawaja, after they were exposed to the rain and bitter cold at the Beach Refugee Camp in western Gaza City.
Emergency services also reported five deaths and multiple injuries after a home collapsed in Beit Lahia’s Be’er al-Na’ja area in northern Gaza.
Civil defence sources further told Al Jazeera that two displaced people were killed early Friday morning when a large wall collapsed onto tents west of Gaza City.
On Thursday, the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced the death of Rahaf Abu Jazar, a young girl who succumbed to cold and heavy rain after flooding engulfed displacement tents in the Al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis.
Officials say the Ministry of Interior has received more than 4,300 emergency appeals since the storm began.
A source told Al Jazeera that all displacement camps in northern Gaza have been fully flooded, with several homes collapsing under the pressure of rain and rising water.
Halawa Camp, the source said, was almost destroyed, with tents submerged and belongings washed away. The Nadi al-Nuzla camp in Joura al-Saftawi was also fully evacuated after flooding.
Homes and shelters in Jabalia, Beit Lahia, and the surrounding areas were heavily inundated, while makeshift tents failed to withstand the intense rainfall.
Rains wreak havoc
The deadly storm comes as displaced families face catastrophic living conditions, severe shortages of essential supplies, and the near-total breakdown of vital services due to the ongoing Israeli blockade on the entry of winter aid to the strip.
On Thursday, Hamas stated, "The criminal Zionist occupation's procrastination and reneging on its commitments under the ceasefire agreement, particularly regarding the humanitarian protocol and the obstruction of basic shelter materials.
"The humanitarian suffering of our Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip is worsening with the winter season and the weather depressions that hit shelter centres and worn-out tents.”
The Palestinian resistance group said the situation had reached a “catastrophic humanitarian reality” because of Israel.
In late November, Amnesty International said Israel is continuing to commit genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, almost two months after a ceasefire came into effect, warning that the truce has created a “dangerous illusion” of improvement while conditions on the ground remain catastrophic.
Egypt, in collaboration with the UN and its humanitarian partners, has been sending urgent aid convoys with winter supplies to Gaza daily, but the Israeli occupation forces have been imposing restrictions on the entry and delivery of life-saving food and tents in the strip.
A report by the Associated Press documented painful scenes among displaced families. According to the report, many found their possessions and food supplies soaked inside their tents. Children’s sandaled feet disappeared under opaque brown water that flooded the camps, running knee deep in some places. Dirt roads turned to mud. Piles of garbage and sewage cascaded like waterfalls.
“We have been drowned. I don’t have clothes to wear, and we have no mattresses left,” Um Salman Abu Qenas, a displaced mother in a Khan Younis tent camp, told AP. She said that her family couldn't sleep the night before because of the water in the tent.
Aid groups say that the amount of shelter materials entering Gaza during the truce is far from sufficient. Israel's military figures suggest it hasn't met the ceasefire stipulation of allowing 600 trucks of aid daily into Gaza.
“Cold, overcrowded, and unsanitary environments heighten the risk of illness and infection,” the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said on X. “This suffering could be prevented by unhindered humanitarian aid, including medical support and proper shelter."
Sabreen Qudeeh, a Palestinian woman in the Al-Mawasi camp in Khan Younis, said her family woke up to rain leaking from the ceiling of their tent and water from the street soaking their mattresses.
“My little daughters were screaming,” she said.
Ahmad Abu Taha, also living in the camp, said no tent escaped the flooding. “Conditions are extremely harsh; we have old people, displaced, and sick people inside this camp,” he said.
The scenes in Gaza clearly demonstrate how profoundly Israel's genocidal war had damaged the territory, destroying the majority of homes. Gaza’s population of around 2 million is almost entirely displaced. Most people live in vast tent camps, stretching along the coast, or set up among the shells of damaged buildings. These camps lack adequate infrastructure to resist floods and sanitation. Refugees use cesspits dug near the tents as toilets.
With buckets and mops, Palestinians laboriously scooped water out of their tents.
Aliaa Bahtiti said her 8-year-old son "was soaked overnight, and in the morning he had turned blue, sleeping on water.” Water rose by an inch inside her tent. “We cannot buy food, covers, towels, or sheets to sleep on.”
Baraka Bhar was caring for her 3-month-old twins inside her tent as the rain poured outside. One of the twins has hydrocephalus, a buildup of fluid in the brain.
“Our tents are worn out ... and they leak rain water,” she said. “We should not lose our children this winter.”
Not enough aid
Aid groups say that Israel is blocking aid into Gaza to begin rebuilding the territory after years of war.
Under the most recent truce agreement between Tel Aviv and Hamas, Israel agreed to comply with aid stipulations from an earlier January truce. According to that agreement, Israel was to allow 600 trucks of aid daily into Gaza. While claiming compliance, Israel's own figures, according to The Associated Press, cast doubt on that claim.
The January truce also stipulated that Israel allow caravans and tents. No caravans have yet entered Gaza during the ceasefire, said Tania Hary, executive director of Gisha, an Israeli group advocating for Palestinians’ right to freedom of movement.
COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of coordinating aid to Gaza, claimed on 9 Dec. it had “lately" let 260,000 tents and tarpaulins into Gaza and more than 1,500 trucks of blankets and warm clothing.
However, Shelter Cluster, an international coalition of aid providers led by the Norwegian Refugee Council, sets the number lower. According to Shelter Cluster, the UN and international NGOs have dispatched 15,590 tents to Gaza since the truce began. Other countries have sent about 48,000 tents, many of which are not properly insulated.
Amjad al-Shawa, Gaza chief of the Palestinian NGO Network, told Al Jazeera on Thursday that only a fraction of the 300,000 tents needed had entered Gaza. He said that Palestinians were in dire need of warmer winter clothes and accused Israel of blocking the entry of water pumps to help clear flooded shelters.
"All international sides should take the responsibility regarding conditions in Gaza,” he said. “There is real danger for people in Gaza at all levels.”
Khaled Mashaal, a Hamas leader, said in an interview with Al Jazeera that Gaza needs the rehabilitation of hospitals, the entry of heavy machinery to remove rubble, and the opening of the Rafah crossing, which remains closed.
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